Zverev outdoes nemesis Chung to reach Munich final

Alexander Zverev got the upper hand in one of his toughest match-ups on the tour on Saturday, beating Hyeon Chung for the first time in three tries in the semifinals of the BMW Open, 7-5, 6-2.

In a battle between the two youngest players in the Top 30, the first set had all kinds of momentum swings. Chung jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Zverev won five games in a row to go up 5-3. Chung then broke back and evened it up at 5-all before Zverev broke again and served out the set.

In the second set it was all Zverev - the No. 3-ranked German held all four of his service games, and broke the No. 22-ranked Chung in two of his four to close the match out after an hour and 31 minutes.

For Zverev, it was a bit of revenge - Chung had won both of the pair’s previous meetings, in straight sets in Barcelona a year ago, and in five sets in the third round of the Australian Open this year.

Match point from Zverev's win over Chung in Munich:

It was also his milestone 20th match win of the year, and propelled him into his second ATP World Tour final of the year, having finished runner-up at the Masters 1000 event in Miami (to John Isner).

Zverev is 6-4 in his career in ATP World Tour finals, those six career titles made up of one in 2016 (St. Petersburg) and five in 2017 (Montpellier, here in Munich, Rome, Washington DC, and Montreal).

Standing between Zverev and his seventh career title (and first of 2018) will be countryman Philipp Kohlschreiber, who beat yet another German - Maximilian Marterer - in the other semifinal, 6-2, 6-4.

Kohlschreiber actually leads Zverev in their head-to-head, 2-1, winning their first two meetings in 2015 (here in Munich and at the US Open). Zverev won their last meeting at Halle last year, 6-3, 6-4.

Kohlschreiber will be playing in his 18th career ATP World Tour final (he’s 8-9 in his first 17 finals).

It’ll also be a final between former Munich champions - Kohlschreiber has won this title three times before (2007, 2012, and 2016) and Zverev won this title last year (beating Guido Pella in the final).

Coverage begins on Tennis Channel and Tennis Channel Plus on Sunday